the neverending reference interview of life

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Class & Lunch

Today I taught a continuing education class for my fellow library professionals about blogs, microblogging, and RSS feeds. It went very well by my own estimation as I was able to finally use some of the knowledge gleaned from the Pres4Lib conference back in June. Specifically, I made sure I was prepared, relaxed, and tried to make certain I was addressing everyone in attendance. It was hard since I was positioned in the middle of the computer lab with people behind and in front of me. I had some stops and starts, but it happened when the internet was slow to load something or I skipped around on some of my major points or got ahead of what I wanted to say. There was probably more talking off the top of my head than should have been, but my experience with all the sites reminded me of all the ins and outs. The thing I would do next time is make certain I provide a recommendation for each site as it would relate to a patron reference question experience. I did for some sites but not for others, although it ended up getting cleared up at the end.

What made today really nice was lunch. I had stopped to get something to eat from Wawa and went to eat my lunch at our main branch where I was teaching the class. Today was so gorgeous that I decided to park over by the trees on the side of the parking lot. In a quick command decision, rather than sit in the car and listen to the radio while I ate or go inside, I went and sat under the trees. I’ve come to the realization that I may spend too much time “connected”; between Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal, various message boards, email, television, and radio, I am just bombarded with information most of the day. It is a matter of taking the time to shut off everything, to sit with my thoughts, and (as my anxiety counselor might put it), just be.

So there I sat on the grass, under the trees, with my back to the busy road that runs in front of my library, listening to the wind, watching the clouds, and slowly eating my sandwich. It was simply divine; and something I should do more often. And next time, maybe take a picture or two. Oddly enough, it reminded me of something I had heard today. The host of Tell Me More on NPR was chiding a guest who was speaking far over his time allotment and wanted more time with this quip:

"Time is a resource that they are not making any more of, and I am in charge of it.”